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The review of all available contemporary documents, i.e., technical and photographic reports, newspapers, and other archive material, of the 1908, M 7.1, Messina–Reggio Calabria earthquake has allowed to recognize and classify a large number (365) of independent environmental effects of the earthquake and the subsequent tsunami. The effects have been categorized as slope movement, ground settlement, ground vertical movement and coastal retreat, liquefaction, ground crack, hydrological anomaly, gas emission, light, and rumble. No undisputable evidence of surface faulting has been pointed out. Nevertheless, the widespread and rather homogeneous subsidence of the coastal area of Messina (40–70 cm) might have been caused by slip along a NNE–SSW-trending, east-dipping fault, corresponding to the here proposed Messina Lineament. Likewise, slips along the Reggio Calabria, Armo and Motta San Giovanni faults, suggested by coastal subsidence and slides, ground cracks, and leveling data, cannot be ruled out. A large part of the achieved information has allowed to evaluate the epicentral intensity and local intensities at 74 sites, by applying the environmental seismic intensity scale ESI 2007. This study has led to the most comprehensive picture of the distribution and characteristics of coseismic environmental effects of that earthquake, a crucial knowledge to better estimate the future impact of a similar earthquake on a region that has seen a broad, and often poorly concerned, urban and infrastructural development since then.

On 6 April 2009, a moderate earthquake (Mw = 6.3; Ml = 5.8) struck the Abruzzo region in central Italy, causing more than 300 fatalities and heavy damage to L'Aquila and surrounding villages. Coseismic surface effects have been thoroughly documented by timely field surveys as well as by remote sensing analyses of satellite images. The outstanding quality of geological, seismological, geodetic, and interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) information arguably represents the best ever data set made available immediately after a moderate seismic event. Based on this data set, we aim at testing the capability of coupled geological and InSAR data to map surface faulting patterns associated with moderate earthquakes. Coseismic ground ruptures have been mapped at a scale of 1:500 in the whole epicentral area. Traces of surface ruptures have been inferred from linear phase discontinuities identified in the interferogram. A very good agreement between the two methods resulted in the characterization of the main surface rupture along the Paganica fault. The same approach applied to ground ruptures hypothesized along other capable fault segments provided more questionable results. Thus, the combined field and InSAR approach appeared useful for detecting continuous surface ruptures exceeding 1 km in length and showing displacements greater than a few centimeters. These are the typical faulting parameters for moderate earthquakes (6.0 < Mw < 6.5) in central Apennines. For continuous ground cracks shorter than a few hundred meters and/or that show displacements smaller than 1–2 cm, the described approach may be less helpful, most probably due to the limited resolution of the data.

The improved capabilities of Remote Sensing in data acquisition, analysis and implementation of standardized products lead decision makers and managers to a better understanding and assessment against geo-hazard. But since geo-hazard pose potential risks to people, assets and the environment the better knowledge to deal with the huge amount and the high quality of Earth Observation data is required. EO4GEO Project represents the latest challenge to define a standard methodology for the creation of integrated application using EO data and services to carry out geo-hazard risk monitoring, assessment and mitigation options.

We present a 1:25,000 scale map of the coseismic surface ruptures following the 30 October 2016 M w 6.5 Norcia normal-faulting earthquake, central Italy. Detailed rupture mapping is based on almost 11,000 oblique photographs taken from helicopter flights, that has been verified and integrated with field data (>7000 measurements). Thanks to the common efforts of the Open EMERGEO Working Group (130 people, 25 research institutions and universities from Europe), we were able to document a complex surface faulting pattern with a dominant strike of N135°-160° (SW-dipping) and a subordinate strike of N320°-345° (NE-dipping) along about 28 km of the active Mt. Vettore-Mt. Bove fault system. Geometric and kinematic characteristics of the rupture were observed and recorded along closely spaced, parallel or subparallel, overlapping or step-like synthetic and antithetic fault splays of the activated fault systems, comprising a total surface rupture length of approximately 46 km when all ruptures were considered.

We provide a database of the coseismic geological surface effects following the Mw 6.5 Norcia earthquake that hit central Italy on 30 October 2016. This was one of the strongest seismic events to occur in Europe in the past thirty years, causing complex surface ruptures over an area of >400 km2 . The database originated from the collaboration of several European teams (Open EMERGEO Working Group; about 130 researchers) coordinated by the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia. The observations were collected by performing detailed field surveys in the epicentral region in order to describe the geometry and kinematics of surface faulting, and subsequently of landslides and other secondary coseismic effects. The resulting database consists of homogeneous georeferenced records identifying 7323 observation points, each of which contains 18 numeric and string fields of relevant information. This database will impact future earthquake studies focused on modelling of the seismic processes in active extensional settings, updating probabilistic estimates of slip distribution, and assessing the hazard of surface faulting.

In the original version of the Data Descriptor the surname of author Anne Socquet was misspelled. This has now been corrected in the HTML and PDF versions of the Data Descriptor. Some authors were also not appropriately associated with their affiliations in the HTML version, due to formatting errors made by the publisher. This has now been corrected in the HTML version of the Data Descriptor, the affiliations in the PDF were correct from the time of publication.

Pathogenic microorganisms confront several proteolytic events in the molecular interplay with their host, highlighting that proteolysis and its regulation play an important role during infection. Microbial inhibitors, along with their target endogenous/exogenous enzymes, may directly affect the host's defense mechanisms and promote infection. Omp19 is a spp. conserved lipoprotein anchored by the lipid portion in the outer membrane. Previous work demonstrated that purified unlipidated Omp19 (U-Omp19) has protease inhibitor activity against gastrointestinal and lysosomal proteases. In this work, we found that a deletion mutant is highly attenuated in mice when infecting by the oral route. This attenuation can be explained by bacterial increased susceptibility to host proteases met by the bacteria during establishment of infection. Omp19 deletion mutant has a cell division defect when exposed to pancreatic proteases that is linked to cell-cycle arrest in G1-phase, Omp25 degradation on the cell envelope and CtrA accumulation. Moreover, Omp19 deletion mutant is more susceptible to killing by macrophage derived microsomes than wt strain. Preincubation with gastrointestinal proteases led to an increased susceptibility of Omp19 deletion mutant to macrophage intracellular killing. Thus, in this work, we describe for the first time a physiological function of Omp19. This activity enables to better thrive in the harsh gastrointestinal tract, where protection from proteolytic degradation can be a matter of life or death, and afterwards invade the host and bypass intracellular proteases to establish the chronic infection.

ObjectivesNeoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) followed by interval debulking surgery (IDS) may be a valuable treatment option in advanced ovarian cancer when primary cytoreduction is not feasible. However, a consensus on the ideal number of NACT cycles is still lacking. In the present investigation, we aimed to evaluate how number of cycles of NACT influenced patients' outcomes.MethodsData of consecutive patients undergoing NACT and IDS were retrospectively reviewed in 4 Italian centers, and survival outcomes were evaluated.ResultsOverall, 193 patients were included. Cycles of NACT were 3, 4, and at least 5 in 77 (40%), 74 (38%), and 43 (22%) patients, respectively. Patients undergoing 3 cycles experienced a similar disease-free survival (hazard ratio [HR], 1.12; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.89–1.65; P = 0.20) but an improved overall survival (HR, 1.64; 95% CI, 1.05–2.4; P = 0.02) in comparison to patients receiving at least 4 cycles. Five-year overall survival was 46% and 31% for patients having 3 and at least 4 cycles. Ten-year overall survival was 26% and 18% for patients having 3 and at least 4 cycles (HR, 1.70; 95% CI, 1.13–2.55; P = 0.009). Using multivariate analysis, we observed that only Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status correlated with overall survival (HR, 1.76; 95% CI, 1.2–2.49; P = 0.001). In addition, a trend toward worse overall survival was observed for patients with residual disease at IDS (HR, 1.29; 95% CI, 0.98–1.70; P = 0.06) and patients receiving at least 4 cycles (HR, 1.76; 95% CI, 0.95–3.22; P = 0.06).ConclusionOur data underline the potential implication of number of cycles of NACT before IDS. Further prospective studies are warranted to assess this correlation.

Choloylglycine hydrolase (CGH, E.C. 3.5.1.24) is a conjugated bile salt hydrolase that catalyses the hydrolysis of the amide bond in conjugated bile acids. Bile salt hydrolases are expressed by gastrointestinal bacteria, and they presumably decrease the toxicity of host's conjugated bile salts. Brucella species are the causative agents of brucellosis, a disease affecting livestock and humans. CGH confers Brucella the ability to deconjugate and resist the antimicrobial action of bile salts, contributing to the establishment of a successful infection through the oral route in mice. Additionally, cgh-deletion mutant was also attenuated in intraperitoneally inoculated mice, which suggests that CGH may play a role during systemic infection other than hydrolyzing conjugated bile acids. To understand the role CGH plays in B. abortus virulence, we infected phagocytic and epithelial cells with a cgh-deletion mutant (Δcgh) and found that it is defective in the internalization process. This defect along with the increased resistance of Δcgh to the antimicrobial action of polymyxin B, prompted an analysis of the cell envelope of this mutant. Two-dimensional electrophoretic profiles of Δcgh cell envelope-associated proteins showed an altered expression of Omp2b and different members of the Omp25/31 family. These results were confirmed by Western blot analysis with monoclonal antibodies. Altogether, the results indicate that Brucella CGH not only participates in deconjugation of bile salts but also affects overall membrane composition and host cell internalization.